Chet Curtis dies at age of 74

"Gracious," "professional" and "genuine" are just a few of the ways Chet Curtis's former colleagues are remembering the longtime Boston anchor on Thursday. Curtis lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 74.

"This is a horrible loss for the city of Boston today and for so many of us who hold a piece of our hearts that only Chet Curtis could fill," WCVB's Susan Wornick said.

Wornick said Curtis was a friend to "every single person who even watched him for one day on television."

"He had that kind of personality that was not only magnetic, but anybody who knew Chet, anybody who watched Chet knew that he was a person who could connect with another human being in ways that make you feel important and special and loved," Wornick said.

"He loved the news. I can remember when there was a complicated story, and there was a minute and a half left to sum up a situation, and he did that with such expertise and such grace. He was always right on target and right on time. All the time," former WCVB meteorologist Dick Albert said.

Known as "The Mayor" in the WCVB-TV newsroom, he was a friend, a mentor and a leader for whom staff members had great affection.

"I probably remember most when he was off the air, he just loved life, and as probably you've already talked about, he would tell long, funny stories. He loved sort of being with people and holding court. He was an amazing guy," Albert said.

"I was out with a couple of former photographers at WCVB recently and the one comment that seemed to resurface was nobody ever had a bad word to say about him," former WCVB anchor Jim Boyd said. "I mean, he was just the ultimate professional, a great friend, a very giving and loving person."

"Chet was the kind of person who always made you feel good, no matter whether you were in a tense newsroom or just chatting in the hallway. He had that gift to envelop you with a kind of cloud of happiness," recalled former WCVB medical editor Tim Johnson. "But I have to say almost in the same breath he was an excellent news man. He had great news instincts. He never acted like some of the caricatures of news men we see on the TV or in the movies. He had very good instincts, and you could always trust what he was trying to do with whatever news was at hand."

SportsCenter 5's Mike Lynch, who sat alongside Curtis at the anchor desk for years, remembers him as honest, fair and respectable.

"He was the voice of reason and at unreasonable times. He was the one who was calm in calamitous times. And when -- on the set, when everything was haywire in the news department, when tapes get stuck in the machine and the live shot goes down and all around him are losing their cool, Chet was the calm one who just stood in front of the camera and just delivered the story," Lynch recalled. "He had credibility. He had likability. He had respectability."

Former Chronicle anchor Mary Richardson called Curtis a "sweetheart of a guy" who was a perfect mixture of competitiveness and sincerity.

"You combine that kind of competitiveness -- and our business is very competitive -- with being a genuinely nice, sincere person that he was," she said. "It wasn't an act to be kind to people. I would see Chet on the streets. Somebody would come over and talk to him, and he would be engaged immediately in conversation. He was just a very decent human being."

Curtis was also remembered for his generosity -- even toward competitors in a highly-competitive news market.

"Many years ago I was working across the street at another station, and, of course, you know how we are very competitive in this business. We were all up in New Hampshire covering the presidential primary, and he reached out. He wanted to take us to dinner -- those of us at Channel 7. It was such a wonderful moment. And so typical of him, as I learned in the years that followed of his generosity as a person," WCVB's Randy Price recalled.

The respect for Curtis went beyond the newsroom.

"He's one of those people in the media you trusted. He was out there for the real story, not the 'gotcha' story. He was a real human being. I always liked to deal with Chet Curtis because he was just one of those special individuals we have in our city," former Boston Mayor Tom Menino said.

"It didn’t compromise his reporting to be warm. In fact, it improved, enhanced the sense of confidence we had in his reporting," Gov. Deval Patrick said.

"Chet didn’t just deliver the news, he became a trusted member of our families. He came into our living rooms with the wisdom and warmth that made him an iconic star across New England for a generation,” Sen. Ed Markey said.

"Chet and Natalie were part of our extended family and they were a part of it for a long, long time," former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis said. "I don’t know if we have that kind of that connection these days with the folks who do the news, but we certainly did then."

"He just was a very, very kind-hearted, decent guy who cared about the community, cared about Massachusetts, cared about Boston, cared about reporting the news well and being part of the community in that way, and I think people really took him to their hearts," Secretary of State and former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said.

"Unfortunately, at the end, it's a tough way to go because that's such a tough disease that he had. I don't know what to say. I'm just -- I'm stunned. I mean, I knew, obviously, that he was very sick, but I was hoping he had some more time on this earth. He didn't. So it's a sad day for many, many people, me included," Albert said.

DELIVERED THE NEWS GOOD AND BAD TO GENERATIONS OF NEW ENGLANDERS. HERE'S ED HARDING. GOOD EVENING. I'M CHET CURTIS. NOW TOM ELLIS, CHET CURTIS, MEET THE PEOPLE OF CHRONICLE. CHET CURTIS. FOR A HALF CENTURY, NEW ENGLAND INVITED CHET CURTIS INTO THEIR HOMES EVERY NIGHT TO TELL THEM THE NEWS. DETAILS COMING UP AT 11:00. THE PRIDE OF NEW YORK, HE WOULD GO TO MANHATTAN, BUT BOSTON IS WHERE THE NAME CHET BECAME SYNONYMOUS WITH NEWS. YOU CAN'T LIE TO A CAMERA, AND THE CAMERA LOVES CHET CURTIS BECAUSE HE'S HONEST, HE'S REAL, HE'S HUMAN. GOOD MORNING, WORLD. THIS IS WCVB TV, CHANNEL 5, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. CHET CURTIS JOINED WCVB-TV FOR ITS LAUNCH BACK IN 1972. FROM THEN ON AS A REPORTER AND ANCHOR, HE PROVIDED GENERATIONS OF NEW ENGLANDERS FOR A FRONT ROW SEAT OF THE NEW STORY OF THE TIMES. THERE WERE ELECTION NIGHTS. NO ON QUESTION 5, 2-1 IN SUFFOLK COUNTY. TALL SHIPS AND WORLD LEADERS, CHET AND NAT, THEIR NAMES ROLLING OFF OUR TONGUES. THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD KNOWS AS AUSCHWITZ. ONE OF CHET'S CROWNING VICTORY WAS A TRIP TO POLAND FOR A TOUR OF WORLD WAR II DEATH CAMPS. HE WAS A LEADER WE AFFECTIONATELY CALLED THE MAYOR. HE WAS THE SOCIAL GLUE IN THIS ORGANIZATION. HE REALLY ADDED TO THE LEVITY AND YET SERIOUSNESS WITHIN THE NEWSROOM. HE WAS INCOMRABBLE. HE WAS UNIQUE. CHET IS A CONSONANT STORY TELLER. HE HAS MORE STORIES THAN ANYBODY I'VE EVER KNOWN, AND THEY'RE ALL ENTERTAINING. FOR ALL HIS SUCCESS IN NEWS, CHET'S FAMILY, HIS THREE DAUGHTERS AND GRANDCHILDREN,